How many calories do you burn walking a mile?

The short answer

About 100 calories, for an adult of average height who weighs 70 kg (154 lb). It is mostly a question of weight: about 80 calories at 55 kg (121 lb) and about 140 at 100 kg (220 lb). A mile is 1.6 km, about 2,300 steps and about 20 minutes of walking at a normal pace.

Calories per mile, by body weight

Body weight	Calories per mile
55 kg (121 lb)	about 80 kcal
70 kg (154 lb)	about 100 kcal
85 kg (187 lb)	about 120 kcal
100 kg (220 lb)	about 140 kcal

For an adult of average height on level ground, from a model of walking energy built on height, weight and speed, which tested within a few percent of measured values.

Does pace matter?

Hardly, on the flat. Walking a mile briskly burns calories faster, but you finish sooner, so the total for the mile comes out about the same whether you stroll it in 24 minutes or stride it in 16. For a 70 kg adult, the model gives about 100 calories at all three paces. If you want to burn more on the same walk, the levers are distance and hills, not speed.

Walking a mile or running it?

Running burns more for the same mile, by a clear margin. In a study that measured 24 people covering 1,600 m both ways (Hall and colleagues, 2004), running took about 480 kJ, roughly 115 calories, and walking about 340 kJ, roughly 81 calories, on both a treadmill and a track. That is about 40% more for running the same distance. The common idea that a mile costs the same however you cover it does not hold up.

Uphill

The figures above are for level ground. Walking uphill costs more for every mile, so on a hilly route the real number is higher than the table.

Why your watch may show less

These are total calories, including what your body burns anyway just by being alive. Apple Watch shows less, about 70 for a mile at 70 kg, because its Move ring counts only the calories on top of that.

Your own number

The walking calories calculator works it out for your weight, height and distance, and how long it takes to walk a mile has the times by age.

A mile a day, counted toward somewhere

In reTrek every mile you walk moves you along a real route, with a short film about the place waiting at each milestone. Everest Base Camp is free, and the miles you walk anyway take you from Lukla to Base Camp one milestone at a time. Start the walk.